Van de Velde discovers best form

Two days short of his 40th birthday Jean Van de Velde took another step back up the golfing ladder with a superb six-under-par 66 at Wentworth today.

But Van de Velde’s charge onto the leaderboard at the BMW Championship came after he had received one of the shocks of his life on waking up.

The French star, always to be remembered for blowing the 1999 Open with a closing triple-bogey seven when three clear, rang the European Tour to find out what his tee-off time was – and was told it was less than an hour away.

“I was lying peacefully. I thought it would be about 11 o’clock, but I was wrong by an hour,” said Van de Velde, who went without breakfast and his usual warm-up routine so that he made it on time.

“It was OK – I’ve hit enough balls in my life,” he added after keeping a bogey off his card and grabbing six balls to move from joint 42nd at halfway to joint fourth at one point.

Van de Velde is thrilled to be playing golf again, let alone great golf.

After the Open nightmare and a Ryder Cup debut in which he was kept out of action until the singles his marriage, game and health fell apart.

“Not to sound dramatic, but I was wondering if I was going to play competitively again. There was a big question mark.”

After two knee operations Van de Velde lost his tour card, but a runner-up finish in last year’s French Open revived his career and in Madeira in March he had his first win since the 1993 Rome Masters.

He still cannot play a full schedule, however, because of his weak knee. He dislocated it twice playing in Singapore just two weeks before his victory and again at last month’s Spanish Open.

“But I am like a boxer being knocked on the ground – I keep getting up,” he said.

Last October Van de Velde caused a commotion when he said he wanted to enter the Women’s British Open. It followed the decision to allow women to try to qualify for the Open at Hoylake in July.

“I didn’t enter – I’m hoping for an invitation,” he joked today, knowing it will not come.

Michelle Wie will be playing on the European Tour for the first time in Switzerland in September. And Van de Velde aims to be there.

“I’m the only member of the tour who’s played with a woman (in a tour event),” he said, remembering that he partnered Laura Davies when she appeared in Australia two years ago.

“I’m not against her. I’m against the fact it goes one way and not the other.”